


Stairs

by CrazyChicken



Category: Football RPF
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - High School, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-27
Updated: 2013-01-27
Packaged: 2017-11-27 03:10:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,191
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/657391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrazyChicken/pseuds/CrazyChicken
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>These stairs were theirs. The place where everything had started.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stairs

**Author's Note:**

> This is a gift for [renlybarattheon](http://renlybarattheon.tumblr.com) on Tumblr.

These stairs, these very stairs, weren’t unfamiliar to either of them. The only calm place in the centre of a concrete jungle, in the middle of everything, where the lions ate the losers. They remembered the fear, the innocence when they first walked up these steps. They remembered five years of walking these stairs, every single day. They remembered the scratches that had been on their backs when they were pushed against the stone wall next to these stairs, out of anger or out of love. The looks, the talks, the bullying, the kisses. These stairs were theirs. The place where everything had started.

Now the hidden spot behind these stars was the place where they made the final touches to their outfits. Marco redid the younger boy’s bowtie.

“There,” Marco said, stepping back and looking at his work of art proudly. “Are you alright?”

Mario smiled. “Nervous. But alright.”

Their fingers were tangling playfully and Mario’s hands were trembling. Maybe this was the last time he could feel these stones against his back. He wanted to feel that kink one last time, even though he knew it would mess up his suit. He pulled Marco in and kissed him. He tasted like mint.

“Careful,” Marco mumbled into his mouth. “You don’t want to ruin this fabric.”

“Fuck, you’ve never cared about fabrics.” Mario laughed.

“And you never cared about fucks.”

The expression on Mario’s face was priceless.

He knew how much their lives had changed in the last couple of years. From the first day, when they met at these stairs, it had been a lot like a storyline in a book. It started with ‘once upon a time’ and involved stolen glances, twenty first dates, endless phone calls, late night love making, but also angry parents and annoying bullies. It had shaped them into what they were right now. And the storyline ended right here, on the same steps, a few minutes before they said their goodbyes to this school.

They didn’t hold hands when they walked up the stage. The world seemed so infinite from up there, the crowds of parents and family stretching out endlessly before them as they all stood together under the warm spotlights.

In that moment, they felt some strange sort of connection with all the other graduates. The ones that had beaten them up maybe a hundred times, the ones that had stared at them, the ones that had always been there.

Mario’s eyes traced the long line of students standing next to him. The guy who never said anything, and if he did, nobody understood. His best friend with his enormous mouth that was the only one who understood him without words. The beautiful but shy girl that wanted to become an actress and pretended to be careless. The tall guy who always smiled, except lately, because he just broke up with his girlfriend. The girl with the blonde-pink hair who always sat in the back of the class, doodling around the edges of her notes. And then there was Marco.

Mario listened to the speeches closely, trying to remember every single word, because he believed that this was their moment, the most important day of their lives. He heard the tutors recall funny stories and everyone laughed and he told tales about travelling through life with a suitcase full of wisdom and everyone clapped.

Then came the time for the diplomas. Every student stepped forward when their name was called out and the others applauded and for one moment, it was all about that person standing there. Mario’s name came rather quick and the trembling started again when he stepped forward. He looked across the room and searched for his family and he smiled when he found them. Then he watched all the others, the families that didn’t come for him but were smiling for him nonetheless.

That was when he realised that this was where he belonged. Not on this school, or on this stage, but in the centre of attention. The applause, the eyes, everyone congratulating him... In that moment, it was all he needed.

But as soon as it had begun, his ten seconds of fame were over and the next name was called. Yet this piece of paper changed everything for him. He could go anywhere, do anything, love anyone. He glanced up at Marco from the corner of his eye, and Marco raised his eyebrows and Mario smiled back. It was, indeed, their moment.

 

The word ‘congratulations’ echoed all over the parking lot afterwards. Families reunited and students were embraced by proud parents. Mario could see his mother hold back her tears when she looked at her son, smiling. His father shook his hand and his brother simply gave him a playful hit on the shoulder, but they were all equally proud at that moment. He realised that it didn’t really matter what grades you had, as longs as you finally got that precious piece of paper.

Mario felt two familiar arms sneak up and hug him from behind. “How’re you doing?” Marco asked, his pair of lips landing just under Mario’s ear.

Mario pressed back, searching for the right word. “Euphoric.”

“Yeah, me too.”

He could feel Marco grin, even though he didn’t see him. Suddenly, the warmth of his body disappeared as Marco walked up to Mario’s mother to congratulate her too. Courtesies were exchanged and Mario could do nothing but stand and smile and be excited about _everything_. The pieces seemed to fit in the puzzle, for one reason or another. Maybe they had always fitted, but he could only see it now, because the puzzle was done. _The storyline is over_ , he thought. _And they all lived happily ever after._

He was most certainly happy. When they talked to their old friends or Marco’s parents or the teachers they never got to see again. The best thing was when the evening fell and the crowd slowly started to make its way home, to many different houses and many different celebrative meals. They stayed a little while, around the stairs that were theirs.

“Do you think this will become another couple’s favourite make-out spot?” Mario asked, his hands steady on Marco’s back, under his jacket.

“I’m sure it will,” he replied. “But that’s okay, right? We’ve come and gone, but these stairs will always be ours.”

Mario looked up into those bright eyes, shining against his fair skin. Those eyes that held so many promises, such a future, all these secrets... He realised that the graduation wasn’t the most important moment of all; it had been all those years in school and all the years to come, and this day was just another one of all those thousands of days.

“Thank you.” For some reason, that felt like the right thing to say. To thank him for the fact that they had their own spot, their own past, their own fairytale. Thanking him for everything he had given him.

He took his lover’s hand and they walked into the night, leaving their stairs to a brand new generation of lions, losers and lovers.


End file.
